Clippers ‘took the biggest L’ waiving Chris Paul | Off Guard with Austin Rivers | NBA on NBC

Clippers ‘took the biggest L’ waiving Chris Paul | Off Guard with Austin Rivers | NBA on NBC

and the Chris Paul stuff. I mean, I just don’t know what you where you go with it. I mean, what what’s next? Obviously, he’s staying ready. You know, it’s funny to to to kind of wrap a bow on that because it seemed like last week when we talked about it, you know, we hit it on the head pretty pretty square on, but I’ve gotten a chance to talk to multiple execs, coaches, even former players since then, and everyone pretty much is on the same page as what we were on is 50/50 on it. And when I but but if we had to lean towards a side, we would be leaning towards Chris’s side. And that’s due to the fact that the biggest point I think I’m glad I hit on last week that that most people resonated with was people were saying, Austin, when you said players all the time have to deal with circumstances that they don’t like being in, and you just got to deal with it and and come to work and do your thing. the fact that the Clippers couldn’t have just sucked it up and and just just just dealt with him. You you you you know what you signed up for when you took Chris on. Ty Lou has been around the NBA for 30 something years. Okay. Uh Lawrence Frank’s been around the NBA for 30 years. Okay. Steve Balmer’s been an owner now for some good amount of time. You guys know exact and you’ve worked with him before. Okay. You know exactly who Chris is. your top players know who Chris is from competing against him or James playing with him in Houston. Y’all knew who he was when you brought him in. So, if you guys expected him to be anything, even if it’s his last year and it’s a farewell tour and it’s his um you know, last year playing basketball, he doesn’t play a lot, so you just thought he would kind of just coast and be in the background and just help out when needed. That’s not who Chris is. Chris is an ultra competitor. There’s a reason why Chris is who he is. Now, it comes at the expense of sometimes people’s feelings and and and you know, he can be a burden just because how demanding he is, how opinionated he is. He’s a point guard, point guard, whatever you want to call him, right? That same competitive spirit is what’s made Chris who he is. You got to take the good with the bad with it. Okay, your team’s five and 30. Not really, but they’re terrible. Um, how do you what? This has nothing to do with why you guys are winning or losing. Don’t make it out to like he’s a scapegoat and just hold it down. just just just suck it up and deal with him. You only got one year deal towards his last year in the NBA and he’s the greatest player in your franchise. If you can’t do it for Chris, what it shows and tells other people, other free agents, other people out there who would consider the Clippers. Oh, wow. They don’t even You could be the greatest player in their franchise and they still will. Well, Austin, you’re a player. Uh does do players think about that and take it in consideration like when they That just matters the way the Clippers looked last week. They took a massive L. They took more of a big L than they have any other games this year. They’ve taken a lot of L’s on the court as we know. This was the biggest L this year was them waving Chris Paul. From a franchise standpoint, you you you look beyond petty and it it looks like you don’t reward greatness. Even if that greatness is butting heads with Tyoo, it’s a one-year deal and he’s on his farewell tour. It’s his 20th year in the NBA. He’s an NBA Hall of Famer and legend and he’s the greatest player in the franchise history. just shut up and deal with him. He don’t play 35 minutes. This isn’t a Russell Westbrook Sacramento Kings situation where he’s out there playing hard every night. He still wants to play at a high level, being one of the main guys where you got to kind of deal with Russ. That’s not what this is. So, it just seems like you couldn’t have done it for Chris. Listen, if it was me, a guy coming back to play for the Clippers, even me, I I’m a guy that people value in Clippers history, they could have cut me. It could happen. People would have been up in arms. People would have made some jokes about it, but that would have been it. Cutting it’d be like Russell Westford going back to OKC and them them cutting him. You just can’t do it. Then don’t bring him back. If you’re going to bring him back, if you’re going to sell this whole farewell tour and do a whole triet for him, Ty Lou’s got to got to got to suck it up as well as anybody else in the franchise who has problems with him, Lawrence Frank. And you you you have to you you you got to hold it down because other free agents look at these places now. the way this market is, these guys are getting paid so much. These places are going to places and they’re viewing it as their future home. When you talk about Giannis right now, who’s going to be on the market soon or Trey Young or all these guys, right, whose names are floating around, they’re looking for their next home, not just for their kids and their wives or their family and respective others to live, but what franchise can they go to? Can you trust them? Can you be will they accept you? Will they will they promote you? Will they have love for you? If things don’t go well in the court, will they still have your back? This is what these top guys go through. So, when you look at the Clippers franchise, a history that’s not filled with anything, no banners, no nothing. Um, you know, there’s a history of them doing wrong by whether it’s their coach, my pops, uh, Blake, uh, the list goes on. Then you do this to Chris, people just look at it like, gosh damn, the Clippers don’t give a who you are. Like that they they do cold. They they serve their dinners cold over there. It don’t look good. And then you got the opposite of the appeal with people go to LA, they want to go play with the Lakers. Yeah. You’re already battling the most famous franchise. People already don’t want to go to your team. Exactly. They already don’t want to go to your team. When people talk about playing in LA, they talk about playing for the for the purple and gold. Okay. Let’s just keep it let’s keep it 100. So the Clippers were finding their mojo when they had Lob City and Chris and the teams that we had. We were the cool team for once and then we covered up the banners. Steve Bomber announces the new arena. Like bro, we were getting our own thing and it just has not progressed. No offense. And this has I’m not saying this is a Tailoo thing because I’m not tying this to Tailoo. But since Tailoo has got there, since my father has left and Tailoo has gone, the Clippers have either stayed put or gone down. All right. We were building building building building building building building building building building and then now it’s just going towards this plateau. Now people would probably argue and say that the PG thing is what sealed the fate. Shay and all these guys that they gave away is that that obviously helps but we already revisited that trade. You had to do it. You were getting and that’s why you can’t give a hard time. Can’t give them a hard time for making that move because at that time Kawi Leonard was arguably the best player in the league. uh and Paul George was another face of the league and he wanted to play Paul George and there’s a possibility there. There’s not a per person on the planet that would have made that move at that time especially not knowing what Shay was going to become. So that’s gar garbage. Now it’s turned out to be one of the worst trades in NBA history and set up this foundation for what the Thunder have going on right now. But no one saw that unless you had a crystal ball. But from a franchise point, the way they treat their players, that matters, man. and them cutting Chris. It was a massive L. I think it was a massive L. And I’m gonna leave it at that. You know, you made a good point about the Clippers. You know, you guys with the Lob City and everything that really made the Clippers cool my entire lifetime, they were kind of looked at as like a cursed franchise. Now, they had their Darius Miles and Quint Richardson moments with the head tap, but they weren’t winning games back then. You know what I mean? With Lamar ODM, and then they had a really good year brand. What’s up? Let me ask you something. Do do you think you think the Blazers wanted to wanted to sign Damen Lillard to like a two years 40 million? You think I did anything for their team? But he’s coming up. Our producer just said Kobe Bryant after the Achilles they took the Lakers took care of him. They still made contracts. They treated their stars right. So like that’s what you’re alluding to. Yeah, exactly. The Lakers signed Kobe having an Achilles tear at the end of his career. He wasn’t going to bring them any wins. He wasn’t going to do anything for that team. No different than than the the Blazers signing Damen Lillard on the back end of his career after an Achilles injury. They signed him at two years, 40, whatever. They they actually paid him good money, too, for for relatively not what he’s used to, but still very good money in hindsight. Why? Because of what he’s done for the franchise and it makes the organization look good. They know they’re not winning all anyway. They’re not winning it all anyway. It’s an opportunity to do right by a guy who’s brought in hundreds of millions to your franchise who’s taken him to to your playoffs and had some of the best the best playoff moments we have in our history in Portland. End and begin with this guy or they don’t begin. They had Drexler and all those guys, but as of recently, it’s been this guy in modern day. And that’s why you do that deal because it it shows you’re a class A organization. The Lakers, what they do with Kobe, you signed him to that damn contract. It it it didn’t it didn’t do anything for them, but it’s what they they they did they did right by a guy who’s brought them everything. So for a guy like Chris Paul who was a part of the most winningest time in franchise history, the greatest point guard the franchise has ever seen and arguably the greatest player the franchise has ever seen. You can’t do right by Chris. Now his stints there weren’t as long as Kobe and the Lakers and Damon Portland. I get that. All right. He wasn’t drafted there. He wasn’t the baby. I get that. But he went from New Orleans to LA and he was there for a significant amount of time. And you would could argue the peak of his prime was there. And that’s where I’m just like, yo, for a franchise who doesn’t have a lot to celebrate, you cutting the guy that’s the most celebrated within the franchise because he him and the coach aren’t talking or he’s saying stuff with. Come on, guys. Just just just hold it down for a year just cuz he deserves it. And then you couldn’t have brought him back last year. No one would have known there was any drama anyways because it was a farewell tour and you could have moved on. Your team’s five and 16 anyways. Who gives a So that’s where I’m 50/50 because I know who Chris is, but I also see the side. But after you you start putting it, it ends up being like 7030. I’m I’m on Chris’s side.

Austin Rivers discusses why he’s leaning towards supporting Chris Paul in his split with the Los Angeles Clippers. #NBCSports #NBA #NBAonNBC
» Watch live basketball on Peacock: https://peacocktv.smart.link/v82e9dl56
» Subscribe to NBA on NBC: https://www.youtube.com/@NBAonNBC
» Get more NBA news on NBC Sports: https://www.nbcsports.com/nba

NBC Sports Group serves sports fans 24/7 with premier live events, insightful studio shows, and compelling original programming. NBC Sports is an established leader in the sports media landscape with an unparalleled collection of sports properties that include the Olympics, NFL, NBA, Premier League, Big Ten, NASCAR, PGA TOUR, the Kentucky Derby, Tour de France and many more. Subscribe to our channel for the latest sporting news and highlights!

The National Basketball Association returns to NBC Sports, and now Peacock, bringing you the same energy, drama, and iconic moments that helped define basketball’s golden era. With 100 regular season games across three marquee nights, NBA on NBC is your home for the latest highlights, news, and analysis from a Hall of Fame lineup of voices.

Watch more from NBA on NBC YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NBAonNBC
Visit NBC Sports: https://www.nbcsports.com
Find NBC Sports on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NBCSports
Follow NBC Sports on Twitter: https://twitter.com/nbcsports
Follow NBC Sports on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nbcsports/

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/sunday-night-football
https://nbcsports.com/motors/nascar
https://nbcsports.com/soccer/premier-league

Clippers ‘took the biggest L’ waiving Chris Paul | Off Guard with Austin Rivers | NBA on NBC
https://www.youtube.com/@NBAonNBC